“The litigation is behind us”, the European Commission’s health spokesman insisted repeatedly on Friday 3 September, as he answered journalists’ questions about the agreement announced a few hours earlier between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
The two parties, who have been engaged in legal proceedings since April (see EUROPE 12718/4), finally opted for an amicable resolution of their dispute.
It was agreed that AstraZeneca would deliver the remaining 200 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the EU by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
The newly negotiated delivery schedule foresees 60 million doses to be delivered by the end of the third quarter of 2021, 75 million doses by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, and 65 million doses by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
According to the original contract between the Commission and the company in August 2020 (see EUROPE 12547/7), 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine should have been delivered to the EU by the end of June 2021. At that time, however, the number of doses delivered was limited to 99.5 million, the Commission recalls.
New guarantees
The original contract between the two parties required the company to use its “best reasonable efforts” to ensure timely delivery. This was not the case, as the Belgian courts acknowledged in a first summary procedure (see EUROPE 12744/6).
The new contract is based on a “firm commitment” from AstraZeneca and provides for capped discounts on the cost of each delayed dose if the new delivery schedule is delayed.
Discounts will be 10% for one month’s delay, 25% for two months’ delay and 40% for three or more months’ delay. “The rebate will not be granted in the event that the delay in delivery is beyond the reasonable control of AstraZeneca, which will bear the burden of proof in this regard”, the Commission said.
The institution also states that deliveries will be conditional on the approval by the European Medicines Agency of two new AstraZeneca manufacturing sites by the end of October. On this point, the new agreement states that doses can be supplied by any manufacturing site in the world approved by the European Medicines Agency.
Finally, AstraZeneca will be required to provide Member States with weekly and monthly delivery schedules.
Who will benefit from future deliveries?
However, the Swedish-British group’s vaccine has been shunned in recent months in many Member States, which have shifted their doses to the COVAX donation mechanism (see EUROPE 12768/12).
For example, France announced its intention to donate 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to COVAX last month. The same is true in Germany, where there was talk in early August of a donation of 1.3 million doses.
Asked at a press briefing on Friday whether some States would be willing to give up part of the doses that will be allocated to them under the new agreement, the Commission spokesman did not give an answer.
On the other hand, he said that “several Member States would need this vaccine as part of their vaccination campaign”.
“There are significant differences in vaccination rates between our Member States (see EUROPE 12778/6) and the continued availability of vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s, remain crucial”, said EU Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides in a statement.
The Commissioner also assured that the Commission would continue to “help the rest of the world”, recalling the goal of providing at least 200 million doses of vaccine through COVAX to low and middle income countries by the end of this year. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)